Atheist Group says Family that Owns Hobby Lobby is a “Threat” to America Because They are Building a “Museum of the Bible” in Washington D.C.

October 2, 2014

An image depicting the planned exterior of the Museum of the Bible, slated to be opened in Washington, D.C. in fall 2017. (PHOTO: SMITH GROUP JJR)

The controversial Museum of the Bible, a project spearheaded by Hobby Lobby President Steve Green, is scheduled open in Washington, D.C. in 2017, and is seen as a threat by an atheist group that claims the intent of the museum is not to educate tourists, but to “influence Congress.”

News of the museum’s pending construction came not long after Hobby Lobby won a religious freedom case before the United States Supreme Court. The court ruled in June that Hobby Lobby could be exempted from providing four birth control methods that can lead to the early termination of a pregnancy.

Since the announcement of the project, the Museum of the Bible has generated negative responses from secular groups, including the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

“I think they (the Green family) are a great threat,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of FFRF, told The New York Times, when she was asked to comment on the Green family’s plans for a 430,000-square-foot-Bible museum. “My instincts would tell me that they are choosing Washington, D.C. because they intend to influence Congress.”

Cary Summers, chief operating officer of Museum of the Bible, told The Christian Post that the planned location, the Washington Design Center in Southwest Washington, was selected in large part because of its proximity to Capitol Hill.

The building — originally constructed in the 1920s as a refrigeration warehouse — “will be restored, adapted and enhanced,” to accommodate an “eight-story world-class museum” that will include “high-tech exhibits, immersive settings and interactive experiences,” Summers explained.

The museum is not the only effort the Green family has undertaken to advance knowledge of the Bible.